bierkergaard

  As I type out this blog, the 1990's version of a podcast (everyone had one, or almost everyone) I am finishing up on this coffee from La Cabra from Copenhagen. I asked a Copenhagen/Danish guy who was staying at my buddy's AirBnB last night around a fire-we were practicing Hygge-why Denmark has 3/5 of the best coffee companies in the world. His answer? Danes love great coffee.  There you go. I was just wondering how and why Denmark, a small country, had that 3/5 going. If you love something, you will value it. And if you don't value it, you don't love it.      It has a very unusual taste profile that is both sweet and sour. Not just bitter but sour. There are processing related reasons for this that I won't delve into but trust me, this is sour like a lime. It has taken me almost the whole bag for my palate to acclimate to it and now it is no more as I sip my porcelain mug to empty. Yet, it is sweet. I miss the taste. Sourness feels like sorrow to me. A lingeri...

  The barista at the coffee shop said this is where Kierkegaard fell ill on the street and was taken to hospital. And died several days later. A fitting conclusion to my trip. Soren enjoyed his coffee. With an obscene amount of sugar. I think it helped fuel his prodigious literary output. Nearly 40 books in 13 years. I doubt I’ll read the 34 books I have of his in 13 years. Because reading his books is tied into the Bierkergaard podcast, it is a consistent and purposeful yet peaceful walk.  If I didn’t enjoy it, I wouldn’t do it. Everything else about building a platform must be the cart being pulled by the horse of joy. Not the other way around.  Tomorrow I fly out. Not sure I’ll ever be back unless the podcast becomes a bigger net. There are plans in Copenhagen to advance Kierkegaard scholarship at a more advanced level, and if God has a plan to have me be a part of it, I’ll be back. I have no overweening ambition. I really don’t.  I’d like to thank all of you here...

  Reminded today when the pulling weeds that even they have their beauty. Dig the small blue flowers. That’s it. 

Also,  a great book by M. Scott Peck. The Road Less Travelled. Perhaps the best opening sentence of any book ever. “Life is Difficult.”  'The Road Not Taken' Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler, long I stood And looked down one as far as I could To where it bent in the undergrowth; Then took the other, as just as fair, And having perhaps the better claim, Because it was grassy and wanted wear; Though as for that the passing there Had worn them really about the same, And both that morning equally lay In leaves no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day! Yet knowing how way leads on to way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. ~Robert Frost (Book: Mountain Interval [ad] https://amzn.to/3TXE9ff)

 

 Starting 2024, this seemed good to post:

Trying to post one thing a day that is encouraging and thoughtful a day on Facebook. I know, subversive. The most efficient way to do this is screenshot the FB post and use my phone to post the screenshot here on Blogger. I like making things easier vs. harder. This way I can post on FB and also post on Blogger. A Win-Win! 

 Walk, Don't Run  Been quite some time since I have composed a blog versus some other media production, such as the Bierkegaard podcast. You can find it. Just type in Bierkergaard into your podcast platform. Blogging seems like cave drawings these days. An ancient way our distant ancestors communicated via images. But, we are regressing. Now we communicate by images and not words. Calling it an advance. Technologically perhaps but intellectually, not so. If I had more of a grand vision, I'd use this blog to support the podcast. To riff on ideas that lend themselves to literary expression, derived from Kierkegaard. But I don't. Until this morning. 2:33 AM. I was up and hungry. Did some stuff around the house that could have truly waited but I decided to do anyway. It wasn't like the cat was on fire or anything. Or even hungry. Like me. So, my omission of using an image at the top of this post is deliberate. You can get enough of that elsewhere. Use your imagination. That...

I hope to post something more in-depth soon about my circuitous road-trip to California and back. Here was the final leg! I got nailed by some bird poop when turning onto Route 30 in York. What a resounding welcome back!

  I will work on the text this week. I am angry with Twitter in this supposed era of Elon Musk Freedom of Speech. More to come. Well, here it is. - Twitter deactivated my Bierkergaard account for writing a Libyan terrorist should be hung high who killed hundreds. Bierkergaard: For a week in the slammer. - Warned by Instagram to not call Jason Kelce (Center for the Eagles) “Fatman.” It was a violation of Community Standards. Here’s the kicker. Kelce calls himself Fatman. - I stated that Hitler was “Man of the Year” by Time Magazine in 1938. Facebook put me in solitary for several days. It is a fact. Not my opinion. No statement of me approving of Hitler and Nazism.  This stuff is ridiculous baloney. Censured by know-nothings, where facts don’t matter. We have a country run by weenies. 

  As I have noted, my goal with this blog is to post something monthly that goes more in-depth on an issue and theme that I am addressing in my podcast Bierkergaard: The Writings of Soren Kierkegaard . I have not met that goal as of yet but it is the intent. The podcast is easy to find on all major platforms (Apple, Google, Spotify, Anchor, etc). Rather than me post the links, it is easier for you to search.   If you have been listening to the podcast you know that I have been reflecting on Soren's book Purity of Heart is To Will One Thing.  I just finished Chapter 4, The Reward Disease . When we do good to receive primarily an earthly reward (possessions, power, privilege, pleasure, all of those "P" words that boil down to Pride and Presumption). If I do good, I deserve one, some, or all of these P's. Versus, doing the will of God and letting the consequences come, for earthly good or ill. A hard teaching. As James writes in his Epistle, "Let no many of you beco...

Madison Myers Mural in Chattanooga  Well, I pulled the trigger! I was in communication with Princeton University Press who is the entity that has published most of the translated to English from Danish of Soren Kierkegaard's Writings. The rep let me know that if I waited until this week, I'd get a half-off of list price of his books plus free shipping. Christmas in June! So, I should be in possession soon enough of 24 additional books of Soren's, on top of the ones I already own. I wanted paperback books (less expensive than hardcover of course) and no e-books. My process of reading is quite visceral and even masticatory. I underline with pen, circle, make notes, and essential ruin the book for resale. So, when I die, my estate can create a funeral pyre of Soren's books, lay my dead 6' 8" corpse upon the heaping pile, pour some Wild Turkey 104 Proof Bourbon upon the pyre, and throw a lit Ashton Cigar upon it all and have a party. Not quite as dramatic as Hunter...

                     A grandmother who kindly helped kids in school and served in her church?  A sister whose brother was fighting leukemia (like the family hasn't suffered enough?). And the other victims. Really, these are your sworn enemies?    I was going to do a dedicated Bierkergaard Podcast on the Buffalo mass assassination tragedy. By a deranged 18 year old white boy fucker. Yes, he is a fucker. Let's cut out the niceties here. But, I decided that a blog post was a better venue to air my thoughts, although I did talk yesterday about it briefly in the context of how tragedy makes joy so very difficult. It is said that Jesus endured the Cross for the joy set before him. Endure, that is sometimes all that can be done.   But, we are complicit if we don't a take deep look at what happened and make the hard choices to address such events, rather than turn away. That is not acceptable. Their blood cries out from ...

 

  I am back! From the dead or at least a long sleep. Winter hibernation and then some... Great News! I have created a podcast titled Bierkergaard: The Writings of Soren Kierkergaard.   It is on major podcast platforms here below: Apple:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/ podcast/bierkergaard-the- writings-of-soren-kierkegaard/ id1613261340    Google:  https://podcasts.google.com?fe ed=aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8 4ODNiMDc2Yy9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw% 3D%3D&episode=MzE2NDI4YzAtOTRl Yy00MzM0LThhNjYtOWI0NzQ2Yjk2ZW Q5 Anchor:  https://anchor.fm/bierkergaard Spotify:  https://open.spotify.com/episo de/1KBxc880AeA3H8k5lcmCqL?si=J XgDDOx5SoyrR2qR5D11FQ In some cases it may take you to a specific episode vs. the podcast page. I am still learning the tech and yesterday I had my first guest, Tom Becker, from the Row House Forum here in Lancaster.  Listen to my podcast with him. It was both fun and insightful. Tom and I go back about 25 years. The other episodes...

I am aware that I have been quite lax on blogging. I am more in a consuming mode right now in terms of theology and philosophy. This is not a permanent hiatus. Just for a season. Hopefully, COVID will let up at some point soon so that we can get back to living non-truncated lives. In the meantime, continue to explore the consolations of philosophy and theology, which are legit responses to harder times. When life is easy, we get lazy. When it is difficult, we are forced to stop and consider. Have a great start to 2022!  

  As I mentioned in my last blog, I have taken up the game of disc golf and this was not something I saw in my future as I decided to retire last June 2021. Was not a life goal. I instead envisioned travel in both the U.S. and Internationally, drinking great coffee and craft beer, in interesting locales, and hearing peoples' stories and telling a few of my own. A focus on outdoor activities such as hiking, mountain biking, and kayaking, were planned as an accompaniment.  Well, it hasn't quite turned out that way, at least not yet. Instead, I have been tethered locally due to a family member's medical issues and also (not related) COVID. So, I have been grounded. And as my near future and perhaps more long-term came into focus, I had to look around to see what I could put my hand to so to speak and disc golf came to the fore.  Although I'd love to mountain bike more, I have calculated that about once a week is all I can risk. The more I mountain bike, the greater likelih...

One would think we the extra time obtained from retirement that I'd become the Mad Writer, pounding out words feverishly to fill the now gaping abyss of time and task. Just the opposite.  Although I am listening to several hours of podcasts daily and reading to some degree, I am finding that I am enjoying not having to produce anything. I am in the receiving mode and a decent amount of the receiving is rest and recreation. I have taken like a fiend to disc golf and am presently exploring and playing all of the courses nearby and even some a bit far away. I occasionally meet others to throw with, either intentionally with friends, or incidentally with strangers who just happen to be at the course also.  I admit that I am not changing the world, even a little. Instead, I am in avoidance mode. I have laid down my work weapons and picked up discs. I tried to have a big impact on education and our culture in the past and instead of becoming a supernova of sorts, I cratered. No need...

Anyone who follows this blog or my other social media knows that the Danish writer/philosopher Soren Kierkegaard exerts an enormous amount of influence on my thinking. In a nutshell, he was strongly anti-clerical and anti-institutional while still retaining a strong Christian ethos, although he'd probably prefer something along the lines of "Seeker of Truth." He saw Jesus as the embodiment of Truth.  The above quote is backed by Scripture. Jesus encountered the crowds and rarely did it result in positive outcomes. Once they wanted to throw him off a cliff. He fed 5000 but how many of those became followers? They were looking for a spectacle and to be entertained. One day, the crowds shouted "Hosanna." Next day, "Crucify." Kierkegaard saw Christendom in the Danish Church as being more geared towards the "Dom" piece than Christ. The same root word as in dominate and dominion. Attracted those interested in the accumulation of power, prestige, an...

All summer I have had an ant trap in my kitchen. Hundreds of ants killed yet they keep coming. Last week I decided to take away the ant trap because it is trending towards Fall. Next Summer I am thinking about not having an ant trap out at all.   Here is why: I am suspicious that the ant trap attracts ants that otherwise would not come to the kitchen, that they would stay outside. Maybe 90% of them. The ant trap doesn't kill the ants immediately. Instead, it takes time and allows the ants to communicate that there is an apparent food fountain in my kitchen. A Death Pool more like.   This has a parallel to social media. I know I have been on a jag recently about this but I am trying to figure out how to respond to ignorant and uneducated comments on social media by the hordes of smart asses, both Right and Left.Who are brazenly confident in their obvious ignorance to anyone who has any amount of real learning about a topic. Some dude commented yesterday that my B.A. i...